Unpopular Take - SaaS companies should ask for SaaS experience when recruiting for sales.

I know I am going to get roasted for this and every wannabe sales guru "LinkedIn Influencer" keeps attacking SaaS companies for things like requiring college degrees or SaaS experience when selling.

For one, they can afford to be picky!

Since the cat's been out of the bag on the world of SaaS sales where an SDR can make above average salary and AEs can work remotely, everyone has been trying to bulldoze their way into SaaS sales. Everyone is telling their former alcoholic, former drug addict, former college dropout, and former party animal that aged their liver by 20 years to get into SaaS sales. SaaS companies are not obligated to pick up everyone desperate for a job. Just like any other industry, relevant experience helps.

Observations on most sellers that come from outside of SaaS.

I know the typical narcissist too ugly to get a following on Instagram "sales influencer" on LinkedIn loves to tell the story about how all door-to-door salespeople are the best sellers. I call BS.

As someone who has been in door-to-door sales in his youth and then SaaS sales now, it is different. Software sales require you to truly be consultative, creative, work well with other teams internally on deals, and come up with creative solutions. The other thing is that it is a lot more of a structure environment where you are selling a complicated product.

Someone who comes from a line of sales where you have to be in people's faces and force them to buy is not always going to do well in a SaaS sales environment where being pushy hurts. Where you have to actually deliver value and line up with the complex objectives of a buyer instead of just shoving a contract in their face and forcing them to sign as you would in other industries.

Some of the worst sellers I have known in my SaaS career came from these pushy transactional industries, pissed off clients in SaaS, and occasionally hit their number. When they did, the clients they closed were the ones that churned after a year because all these guys knew how to do was shove a solution down everyone's throat rather than have them find value.

Which industry could be the exception?

Any industry with complicated sales cycles where you have to line up to the goals of a group of people in a company. Certain financial sales fit this role. However, I find it appalling that others feel entitled to a SaaS sales, even over those who have been in the industry for years.

/rant